Sermon Brief
Date Written: February 18, 2011
Date Preached: February 20, 2011
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Falling in Love With Jesus
Sermon Title: Jesus, Our Example
Sermon Text: John 5:19-24 [ESV]
Introduction:
Have you ever had someone you looked to as an example in your life? I recently spoke to a friend of mine from seminary and he told me of a man who used to drive to his house and pick him up for church…
Sun morn, Sun nights and Wed evenings and any other time there was a service, event or happening at the church. This man would drive up, my friend would get in the car and he would say to my friend, “Larry, I love you and I am so glad you are coming to church with me!”
Another friend from Seminary told me once that he knew about a man who faithfully taught SS in the 4th grade class for years upon years, and many Sundays when he got to church there was no one to teach OR there was only one 4th grader to teach… one year there was only one young boy who came sporadically that yr… it was my friend! He told me that this man’s faithfulness and unshakable love influenced him greatly and was a major reason he entered into the ministry.
I have heard stories like this for years… we have all possibly heard the story about the shoe salesman, Edward Kimball who traveled across Chicago in the snow to invite a young DL Moody to SS and eventually led DL to Christ…we have all heard stories of those people in either our life or the lives of people we know or have read about… and how they affected their lives!
Today I want us to look to the One to whom ALL believers should look to for their example… Jesus! Turn with me to John 5:19-24 [ESV] and lets read…
19So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel. 21as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. 22The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Background Info:
Up to this point Jesus had been heard about by the Pharisees. One of them [Nicodemus] had gone to visit Him in the night… and Jesus had told him things that were very difficult to understand…but one of the things HE had told Nicodemus was that he was the Son of God…
Jesus had just went to a wedding in Cana and performed a miracle that everyone was talking about, and now he had just come back from Galilee where he had been thru Samaria and word had it that he had spoken to a Samaritan woman in public and had actually stayed among the Samaritans for 2 days.
While he was in Galilee he had healed a young boy… the son of one of the government officials, and many had seen the young boy sick and then witnessed his miraculous recovery. And now he had returned to Jerusalem and just when he arrived it was the Sabbath and he had the nerve to go to the pool at Bethesda by the Sheep’s gate and heal a man on the Sabbath… what disrespect this Jesus had for God’s law!
So the Pharisees interrogated the man from the pool of Bethesda and found out that Jesus was the one who had healed him. They challenged Jesus for healing on the Sabbath and Jesus’ answer to them was simple… “My Father is working until now and I am working…”
What Jesus was saying here was that God is always at work in the world and because He was God’s Son, HE was at work as well… The Pharisees would have agreed with Jesus that God was always at work in the world, after all without God the world would cease operating…This is what we know as the Doctrine of Providence… where God is in control of everything… working in everything all the time!
The problem was in how that phrase was introduced and then how it was followed up… Jesus begins the phrase with My Father… and ends it by basically saying, “and so am I…” This proclamation by Jesus was a claim that He was equal with God! Jesus was saying that it was ok for God to work and because he was God’s son… it was ok for HIM to work on the Sabbath as well!
Now it wasn’t so much that Jesus had actually DONE work (healed) on the Sabbath…The Pharisees were enraged because of his claim… Jesus was claiming to be equal with God… this infuriates the religious leaders and they are in His face, and that is where we pick up our story this morning…
Jesus then basically begins to address the Pharisees by saying, “Hey guys you need to calm down, I am not doing anything that God does not want me to do… in fact I am only doing what God has TOLD me to do!
Jesus tells the religious leaders that God is His example… that he is following God and his following God we can see three ways in which Jesus is an example for us today… the 1st way we can find in v.19
Jesus – Example of Submission – v.19-21:
19So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel. 21as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.
We need to see this for what this really is here… Jesus is God wrapped in flesh and He knows He is all powerful… He knows He can do ANYTHING, but He knows also that because He came to earth… He limited Himself… that limitation was that He was submissive to the will of the Father. Jesus tells the Pharisees and all that are standing around at the time that He was not acting on His own, but that He was only doing what He knew the Father wanted Him to do…
This was NOT a picture of a man casting blame elsewhere when he was at fault… this was the picture of a man who understood His mission and purpose…His role in God’s kingdom. Jesus understood that God’s plan was driven by God’s will and Jesus was submissive to that will!
Jesus does what He sees the Father doing and because of this He knows what the Father wants done… The Father loves Jesus and shows Him what to do now and in the future…
Here in v.20 we get a wonderful picture of the intimacy between Jesus and the Father… the Father was loving enough to step in and show Jesus the way… direct His path… guide His life. This reveals the relationship they have but it also reveals the submissive and humble heart of Christ in submitting to the will of the Father in all things!
How hard is it to submit when you KNOW you are good… when you know you have what it takes? For us that is a very difficult thing to do…submission is the hardest thing for the human to do, but it is exactly what Jesus has done here in this passage and it is what we are called to do to Jesus when we accept Him as Savior and Lord of our life! When we truly submit… we can truly WORSHIP!
This is because true WORSHIP is submission of all our nature to God and His calling on our lives! WORSHIP is the quickening of our conscience by God and His holiness! WORSHIP is our mind and soul feasting on the nourishment of His truth! WORSHIP is the purifying of our imagination by His holy beauty! WORSHIP the opening up of our heart to God’s unconditional love!
WORSHIP is the full and total surrender of our own will to His holy purpose, but most of all WORSHIP is the gathering up of all our adoration for God!
When we willfully submit to God, we honor Him and this is a true act of worship. IN this passage Jesus was honoring God, and submitting to Him… that revealed Jesus’ love for the Father… and the Father revealed His love to the world THRU Jesus! When we truly LOVE Jesus we are submissive to His guidance and direction in our lives! Do you submit to Jesus today as Jesus submitted to the Father? He is calling on you to surrender your heart today!
Jesus – Example of Character – v.22-23:
22The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
Here we find Jesus revealing part of His participation in the plan of God. God gives all judgment into the hands of Jesus. This is a very important doctrinal issue we must understand. Jesus is called and sent by God into this world… He gave Jesus a mission, to bring salvation and forgiveness to fallen humanity…
Jesus came with all the power of God and with all the authority of a judge, but Jesus INSTEAD of judging the world, offered salvation to the world. In John 3 when Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus he tells Nicodemus:
17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
When Jesus came, He came for a purpose; He came to do a mission for the Father! He came to bring salvation to creation. Jesus was given all authority and judgment, but here we see that His judgment would not be exercised when He was here on earth… not His eternal judgment.
Jesus did judge the religious leaders and their hypocrisy, but all of the leaders who came to Him with a contrite heart… Jesus forgave them and welcomed them into the family of God. Jesus came to offer salvation… and even tho’ He had the ability and authority to JUDGE this world when He was here… He chose to submit to the Father and be a Savior…not a judge!
This reveals great character on the part of Jesus as He was all powerful, and all knowing… He was capable of doing anything, but yet He chose to stay true to the plan of God… showing great character and a submissive spirit.
In the realm of politics, there is a saying… “Power corrupts… and absolute power absolutely corrupts!” And I would say that this is true for every human who is stained with the sin of this world. However, Jesus, who was given absolute power, did not allow it to corrupt Him, but He remained faithful and true to God’s plan revealing great character…even through the most difficult of times!
When Jesus goes into the wilderness and Satan comes to tempt Him… Jesus is offered some pretty POWERFUL things by Satan. Satan could have delivered on these promises… Satan offered kingdoms… Satan offered power and position… but Jesus remained true to God and revealed great Godly character in the wilderness…
What about you this morning? Are you willing to submit and surrender YOUR desires to please God and His desires? Jesus was all powerful, yet stayed true to His calling… showed great and godly character in His witness to us as believers and we are called to be like Him! How is your character today in serving God? Are you willing to submit and surrender to His plan? Or are you still trying to do things on your own?
Jesus – Example of Love – v.24:
24Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
In this passage Jesus is relating to the Pharisees just what He had told Nicodemus on that night back in Chapter 3.
18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Jesus already had the authority to judge those who were wrong and living lives in conflict with God… but when Jesus came into this world He came with a plan… the plan of God which was to redeem humanity. Here Jesus reveals to the Pharisees that He is the way to God! This makes them even madder…
Jesus reveals here that He has come for a purpose and that purpose is to bring the lost into the Kingdom of heaven. This mission… the fulfillment of this purpose was NOT because of something that humanity had earned… or that humanity deserved…
…but Jesus came, and was submissive to the Father, and He revealed great character in His obedience to the Father… all of that was because of the great love Jesus has for God’s creation! He came and had the right to judge us, but did not because He loved us so much!
As Christians, we have the greatest gift known to humanity, we have Christ in us, forgiving our sin, saving our soul and preparing a place in heaven for us… We have every reason to be arrogant and uncaring… but God has called us to do just the opposite! We are called by God to love those around us…
There is no faith shared any greater than the sharing of God’s love with those in need. We are called to share God’s love… How many times do we find ourselves looking DOWN on those who do NOT know Jesus? How many times do we sing about the love of Jesus in our hearts… but when we walk out of this room, we look down our noses at those who are lost, dying and suffering in this world?
We are called to love each other, but also to reach out and love the world! We are not called to be the judge of others… it doesn’t matter what you know about someone… you are not called to be their judge! You are called to love them and share the love of God to them in their need!
The easiest path the believer can take is that of being judgmental and harsh… this is where the Pharisees were and this is where Jesus does NOT want His followers to end up
Jesus revealed His submission
Jesus revealed His character, but finally
Jesus revealed His love
Jesus loves you… He shows that love by keeping the doors of heaven open so that you can know Him today… you can experience His forgiveness and salvation today! DO you want to experience Jesus today? I call on you to step out and come down here and let me pray with you… come down here and make things right with God!
Conclusion:
Our world is filled with great and wondrous creations… Did you know there are hundreds of animals who can camouflage themselves to their surroundings! There is the chameleon with over 160 different species that can take on the color and look of where it is… it blends in!
But in the spiritual world God does not want any chameleon type believers! You see we are in the world… we live in a broken and sinful place… to take on that sinfulness and blend in with the world is totally opposite of what God desires for His followers!
We know this because of the example Jesus gave us… Jesus came and revealed that we COULD live a life separate from the world and submissive to the Father. Jesus revealed that we could live a life of godly character and love to the world around us…
We are NOT called to blend into the world, but we are called to stand out! We are called to be HOLY and that means that we are set aside by God! Today, you have heard how Jesus is our example… His submission to the Father… His character in obedience…. and His love revealed as he came to seek and forgive the sinner! And offer salvation to the souls of humanity and restore humanity back to the original created order!
Today you have heard how much Jesus cares… I challenge you to surrender your heart to Him today. When we begin to sing, I want you to step out from where you are sitting and I want you to come down this aisle and pray with me… We’ll pray that God will forgive your sin, wash you clean and save your soul...
Come today if God is moving in your heart to serve Him in a different way than you are today… are you serving Him where He wants you to be? Or are you trying to force Him to accept YOUR will… come today and make things right with God…
As Bro Ken comes, I urge you to step out and come as we begin to sing…
